The Soviet Union gradually repopulated the Kaliningrad Oblast, including Sambia, with Russians and Belarusians. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, much of the district was a closed military area.

While today the Kursenieki, also known as Kuršininkai are a nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit, in 1649 Kuršininkai settlement spanned from Memel (Klaipėda) to Danzig (Gdańsk), including the coastline of the Sambian Peninsula. The Kuršininkai were eventually assimilated by the Germans, except along the Curonian Spit where some still live. The Kuršininkai were considered Latvians until after World War I when Latvia gained independence from the Russian Empire, a consideration based on linguistic arguments. This was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel, and other territories of East Prussia which would be later dropped.

Baedeker[2] describes Samland as "a fertile and partly-wooded district, with several lakes, lying to the north of Königsberg" (since 1946 Kaliningrad). The highest point, 360 feet, is found twelve miles north of Pereslavskoe (Drugehnen) at the ski resort then called the Galtgarben.[3] There also used to be a Samland railway station. As of 2010[update] the Pereslavskoe railway station serves the "Blue Arrow" railway line from Kaliningrad to Svetlogorsk.

Sambia includes two famous seaside resorts, Zelenogradsk (former German name: Cranz) and Svetlogorsk (former German name: Rauschen).

Amber has been found in the area for over two thousand years, especially on the coast near Kaliningrad. History and legends tell of the ancient trade routes known as the Amber Road leading from the Old Prussian settlements of Kaup (in Sambia) and Truso (near Elbląg - German: Elbing, near the mouth of the Vistula) southwards to the Black and Adriatic seas. In Imperial Germany, the right to collect amber was restricted to the Hohenzollern dynasty, and visitors to Samland's beaches were forbidden to pick up any fragments they found. Beginning in the 19th century, amber was mined on an industrial scale by the Germans before 1945 and by the Soviets / Russians thereafter at Yantarny (former German name: Palmnicken).